U.S. Pat. No. 8,408,857 to a Bale Picking Truck by Kelderman shows a method and apparatus for quickly and efficiently picking up and removing biomass bales from a field in which the biomass was baled, compactly stacking the bales after picking the bales off the ground and efficiently depositing the bales on the ground at a staging area for later loading onto a semi trailer, straight truck, or train car, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2012/0045310 to a Bale De-Stacker by Kelderman relates to a method and apparatus for efficiently unstacking square bales from a stack and conveying the square bales in small sets or individually once they arrive from their aforementioned staging area to the place that they are to be used, such as in an ethanol production plant or a plant where the bales are to be burned for fuel.
Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0315694 to Kelderman relates to a bale loading trailer and method of using it, specifically to loading and unloading stacks of six bales into or out of a trailer. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/326,149 to Kelderman shows a similar device to load or unload stacks of six bales into or out from a trailer that uses a center drive loader for a bale trailer. All the aforementioned patent documents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
It is believed that a device for forming stacks of bales for use with the aforementioned equipment, a device to efficiently receive bales directly from a bale accumulator and form those bales into a stack of bales at least two bales wide and at least two bales high would be extremely useful but has heretofore never been contemplated or designed.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus to efficiently load the bales directly from a baler accumulator to a bale stacker and form a stack at least two bales wide and at least two bales high.